gerri: president obama calling on congress to act to avoid the fiscal cliff. the president said he is optimistic. modestly optimistic, that is, that a deal can be done. here is the president. >> i still want to get thi done. it's the right thing to do for our families and our businesses and for our entire economy. but for iediate action comedy hour is here. it is now. we are now at the point where in just four days, every american's tax rates are scheduled to go up by law. every american paycheck will get considerably smaller. that would be the wrong thing to do. gerri: no kidding. we have been telling you that for weeks. democrats and republicans alike should rename their parties the procrastination party. that is because like a lot of college freshman, they left their work until the last minute. including the 800 billion-dollar fiscal cliff that we have been talking about. a hundred billion dollars it hasn't happened yt. it's not like the deadline comes as a surprise to anybody at all, the least of all congress. they were the ones who extended the bush tax c